Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned new Russian air attacks and announced additional economic assistance for Ukraine as he and the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stood side-by-side and spoke to reporters at a Halifax-area airport. The two leaders embraced as Carney welcomed Zelenskyy to Canada. Zelenskyy touched down for a brief stop on his way to Florida for planned peace talks...
first appointments to fill Upper Chamber vacancies, a number of past, current, and incoming group leaders are clearly stating they want to see the continuation of the independent model that began under the previous Liberal government. “It’s certainly possible that we could see another political party in the Senate, maybe the return of a Liberal caucus. But I think many...
Canada’s largest public-sector union blasted the top government department as “hypocritical” for refusing to say how many of its employees received notice of a potential layoff weeks ago. The silence from the Privy Council Office (PCO) signals the government may not be forthcoming with public information as the majority of federal departments and agencies prepare to announce major layoffs in...
Canada's defence establishment entering an era of bigger ambitions and budgets. The commander of the Royal Canadian Navy is floating the idea of an ice-capable amphibious landing ship to move troops and equipment around the country’s Arctic — and perhaps elsewhere. But Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee is quick not to get his hopes up — and has even, occasionally, taken pains...
By the time you read this it is entirely possible that everything has changed. It’s been that kind of year.
December 23, 2025 (Toronto, ON) – A new Liaison Strategies poll for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) finds Toronto mayor Olivia Chow leading in a potential re-match with former Toronto mayor John Tory, 39% to 35%. Brad Bradford, the first candidate to declare their intention to run for mayor, follows in third with 16% (+4)...
A new national Liaison Strategies poll conducted over the weekend for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada shows the Carney Liberals continuing to slide and now tied with the Conservatives at 38%. The Federal NDP stays steady at 12% nationally, and maintains 19% in British Columbia. Conducted from December 19-21, 2025, using Interactive Voice Response (IVR), the...
In these dark days, look to Irwin Cotler. No wonder hope seems so much harder to conjure up than despair when one reads the daily news. In particular, the counter-revolution against the post-war liberal consensus being led by Donald Trump inspires dread and fear.
I remember clearly a conversation in Luleå — known as the gateway to Swedish Lapland — with then U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, as we negotiated the founding bargain of the Arctic Council. It was the mid-1990s, and Canada was shepherding the Council into being via the 1996 Ottawa Declaration. The critical issue was whether to include national...
REGINA -- Saskatchewan Premier Scott began the year with a smaller crew of mostly newbies, pledging to do better on everything from health care and education to balancing budgets.
The waters around the Queen Elizabeth Islands and western Tuvaijuittuq in Canada's High Arctic have long remained a mystery to scientists. Often referred to as one of the last places in the world with year-round sea ice, these waters have historically been difficult to access because of the thickness of the ice. But melting sea ice has opened a path...
An important underlying purpose of the Combatting Hate Act is protecting communities of faith. Nobody should be intimidated or obstructed when they want to go pray. The act gives police clear tools to intervene when intimidation or obstruction of a community space occurs. It is an important signal that Parliament expects police and prosecutors to act to protect communities of...
As Canada closes out 2025, the Conservatives are suddenly polling higher than at any point since the swearing-in of Mark Carney as prime minister. In the last days of December, several pollsters posted year-end results finding that the Conservatives and Liberals would be neck and neck in a federal election. A Dec. 19 poll by Innovative Research had the Liberals...
We are about to embark on 2026. Should we look ahead with optimism, pessimism or trepidation? Essentially, it is unknown as the crazy man in the White House continues his rampage, destroying what were warm relations between Canada and the United States and turning them to ice. Most Canadians know how to deal with ice so we should have the...
Negotiations on the future of our trade framework with the Trump administration resume in mid-January. Canadian negotiators will continue to work to renew the continental CUSMA agreement that is the successor to NAFTA. This is the preferred result. But we must also acknowledge that non-renewal is a possible outcome. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has already served notice that the...
Remember how deeply divided Canada was over building new oil pipelines last year? Not any more. Two years ago, politicians of all stripes felt the public would never support substantially increased military spending? Now, most do. Free trade is almost a wistful notion from a happier past; economic nationalism is in. The pro-immigration consensus, part of this country’s social fabric...
It might not feel like it, but 2025 was not end-to-end doom-and-gloom – even if it doled out its fair share of the dark stuff. To wrap up this often challenging (understatement of the, yes) year, here’s a look back at some of the happier highlights of the annum Donald Trump returned to office, wars continued to rage, and natural...
Someone needs to tell Donald Trump that yelling a lie won’t make doubters believe it. In his defensive, Scrooge-like message from the White House last week, Shouty Claus railed about the awful economy he’d inherited and how hard it’s proving to mend. Nonetheless, he boomed in staccato until he grew breathless, the economy was doing great, it was on the...
As 1993 drew to a close, Canada was on the edge. Two failed attempts at getting Quebec to sign the 1982 Constitution had put the Parti Québécois on the trail to a comeback. After floundering for eight years, the PQ led in the polls only months ahead of a provincial election. And under its hardline sovereigntist leader, Jacques Parizeau, it...
If you want to know why Canadians judge a leader as an effective prime minister, you can ask them directly. Or you can look at what sits behind those judgments. That is what I set out to do. I ran the same statistical test for Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre and asked a straightforward question:
Here’s my New Year’s list — not for the best or the worst of 2025 — but for the issue most consistently ignored, despite the fact that people care about it.
If there was ever a year that proved that politics can still surprise, it was 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump started it by declaring Canada the 51st state and ended it by adding his name to the Kennedy Center. Our spring federal election morphed from Conservative cakewalk to Liberal renaissance, and the winter saw a flurry of floor crossing. Alberta...
Osman Azizov, who allegedly hunted Jewish women, has been released on bail. How warped are our values in the name of accommodation and diversity
Doug Ford for Prime Minister? It’s the question everyone asks me, in both official languages — even though Ontario’s premier can only speak one of them.
Put the playlist on, and I’ll listen to everything from “Adeste Fideles” to “Petit Papa Noël.” I love Christmas music. But dancing among the carols and Christmas songs in my seasonal memory are a couple of other festive numbers, too.
The chickens are coming home to roost for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. And as we prepare for 2026 to dawn, so many chickens are coming home she’s pretty much running a political poultry farm.
The world of politics often embraces contradictions. Canada faces a stark contradiction today. On the one hand, our country is dangerously divided, regionally and generationally. Both Quebec and Alberta may soon be holding referendums on sovereignty. Many younger Canadians living economically precarious lives resent the Boomers and Gen Xers, with their pensions, health care and other entitlements that millennials and...
MPs defect, unity frays and a leadership review looms for the Conservative Leader
He will have to face the fact that his opponent has been selling Tory policies better than he did — and do something about it. A year ago, Justin Trudeau was still determined to hang on as prime minister, still professing to believe he could win the next election against all odds and public evidence. If he’d held on, he’d...
I was standing in the back of a half-built warehouse in Kingston in April, watching Pierre Poilievre try to rouse his supporters. “We will reject,” the Conservative leader declared ominously, “the Century Initiative.” There were a few angry shouts from audience members who knew what he was talking about. Everyone else was silent. This radical scheme, designed by “multinational corporations”...
If the theme of 2025 in Canadian politics was to expect the unexpected, the ways in which the political world turned upside down will reverberate into 2026. Everyone will have their own surprise developments of this truly tumultuous year, but here are my top five picks for the big country-shaking shifts of 2025.
There is a great deal to love about Canada, but one of the greatest things is that this country will never have a Donald Trump. That thought crossed my mind as this narcissistic egomaniac addressed his countrymen last week in what could only be called an orgy of ego-liberation and industrial scale mendacity. One American commentator said it was as...
On Dec. 15, 2015, I stood in a hotel in downtown Ottawa as the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shared the 94 Calls to Action. I remember the room with auras of super-bright colour as if the children who were lost had travelled from the stars to share in the moment. We stood in awe of these leaders...
Sergio Marchi got himself elected to North York city council at the tender age of 26, and just two years later, became a Liberal MP, just in time to see his party thrashed by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives in 1984. But he stuck around, eventually earning three different jobs in Jean Chretien’s cabinets between 1993 and 2000. He chronicles it...
Last week I carefully read the statement of strategic purpose of the Trump administration, a document published by every recent incoming administration within a year of its inauguration. The strategic statement has been received with misgivings by members of the Fortress America school that holds that the United States should be ready at all times to repulse any initiative from...
There’s an old clip going around on social media this week showing Stephen Harper on his feet in the Commons batting away a question about the supposed impropriety of a Liberal MP crossing over to join his Conservatives. It was 2006 and Harper was being accused of “seducing” Liberal David Emerson over to his side. The then-PM first shrugged it...
Donald Trump's return to the White House brought with it a tidal wave of change that has upended global trade, rattled allies and pushed political and social boundaries in the United States. But the U.S. president faces headwinds as he enters the second year of his second term -- and Canada can expect to feel the effects.
Could they really break up Canada? In recent months — and as recently as last week — separatists have been wooing the Trump administration for support for an independent Alberta. They plan to continue those discussions with the U.S. State Department, and one Alberta Republican even plans to take the campaign further south, to Latin America, to rustle up support...
When Mandy Gull-Masty took up the role of Indigenous services minister last spring, one question loomed over her appointment: why would a Cree woman want to administer the Indian Act, when another First Nations woman before her turned down the role? Gull-Masty was named to the cabinet job in May after being elected as a member of Parliament for the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he prepares to head to the United States for a key meeting in the ongoing talks to end the war with Russia. Zelenskyy is set to visit Florida over the weekend for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on a potential agreement the Ukrainian leader said is...
Canada is used to looking to the United States as a source of health and scientific information, but the federal health minister said that is no longer the case. "I cannot trust them as a reliable partner, no," said Health Minister Marjorie Michel in a year-end interview. Michel added that the U.S. "can be reliable on some stuff," but pointed...
New regulations were put forward a year ago, promised since 2023 budget. Updates to the air passenger bill of rights appear stuck on the tarmac more than two years after the federal government promised changes — something that may come as unwelcome news for Canadian air travellers facing their own delays. After promising to improve the air passenger protection regulations...
The people anxiously sipping hot chocolate in the Canadian Embassy in Washington on a cold night in January almost a year ago couldn't have predicted the roller-coaster of trade provocations and bilateral blow-ups the next 12 months would bring. In hindsight, that unusually chilly Washington evening foreshadowed how the Canada-U.S. relationship would soon freeze over. Trump's tariff threats and his...
2025 saw rapid changes on the Canadian political scene. With the final days of 2025 rapidly falling to the wayside, Canadians are likely taking stock of the last 12 months. The past year has seen some rapid changes on the political scene — most notably in the prime minister's chair. At this time in 2024, Justin Trudeau was still mulling...
Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy has a square glass case in his office that holds a spray-painted pair of sneakers he wore while campaigning for the federal election. He calls it his "Stanley Cup." Fanjoy became the MP for the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton in the last election after defeating Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who had held the riding more than...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says it will take time for Canadians to see the results of efforts to grow and diversify the economy, but insists “we’ve got to keep on this track.” In a year-end interview with Global National anchor and executive editor Dawna Friesen, Carney said Canada is already in a better place than it was when he first...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the holiday season is a time to slow down and reflect and to reconnect with loved ones. In a recorded message to Canadians, he says the holidays remind people of all traditions that light follows darkness. Carney, who is Catholic, says Christmas is a special time for Christians to recommit to follow the example of...
Vancouver Island MP Aaron Gunn says he won't run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of B.C. because he doesn't want to risk giving the federal Liberals a majority government. Gunn says his departure could "upend the balance of power in Ottawa" and leaving would be too great a risk as Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to pursue a...
Israel's security cabinet approved 19 new settlements on Sunday. Canada and 13 other countries issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. “We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but...
Since Mark Carney became prime minister in March, he has made promises to spend big on major infrastructure projects as well as AI research and adoption. He’s also dealt with constant trade threats from his counterpart south of the border.
Europe is watching for a possible breakthrough in U.S.-led talks for a ceasefire in Ukraine, as Canada has repeatedly said it's up to Ukrainians to decide how the war ends. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told reporters he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia's invasion, if...
The federal government is suspending the planned export ban on single-use plastics due to tariffs and supply chain issues "creating significant pressure on the domestic economy." The government launched a 70-day consultation about not moving forward with the single-use plastic export ban on Saturday through the Canada Gazette. The government says the progress on environmental benefit expected with the export...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is affirming Greenland's sovereignty as Washington again says it wants to annex the self-governing territory of Denmark. Anand spoke Tuesday with her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen and says she conveyed "Canada's support for the fundamental importance of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity." Her comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump appointed an envoy...
OTTAWA -- The federal government ran a budgetary deficit of $18.4 billion for its April-to-October period.
First PM should be honoured, defenders say. Others argue he's a symbol of genocide. The racial reckoning of the COVID era saw Canada grapple with its checkered past — a process that led to statues of some foundational figures being removed, in some instances by force. Five years on, there's a growing movement to restore some of what was taken...
Anglican Deacon Michael Van Dusen typically has plans for the Christmas season that do not involve a Toronto courthouse. Perhaps he would be preparing his Christmas Day sermon or visiting with family. But on Tuesday, he stood beside a painted banner that read "no faith in fossil fuels" and spoke to a small crowd, including some of his parishioners, about...
This year has been marked by economic upheaval, global conflict and climate change-induced natural disasters, and only a third of Canadians are optimistic things will get better in 2026, a new Leger poll suggests. Asked about their expectations for the new year, 35 per cent of respondents said they were optimistic that 2026 will be better than 2025. Thirty-seven per...
The Independent Senators Group—the largest group in the Red Chamber—will start the new year with a fresh team led by Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion at its helm. Moncion, whose election as incoming ISG facilitator was announced Dec. 10, says improving communications with the public, and leveraging the group’s strength in the Chamber are two areas on which she’s set her...
Wally Daudrich, who finished a close second in this year's Manitoba Progressive Conservative leadership race, is now hoping to run for a legislature seat. Daudrich is seeking the Opposition party's nomination in the Turtle Mountain constituency -- a Tory stronghold where incumbent Doyle Piwniuk has announced he will not seek re-election in 2027.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to appoint close friend and investment banker Mark Wiseman as Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. is leaving a sour taste in the mouths of Quebecers because of his affiliation with the Century Initiative, which has lobbied for mass immigration by 2100, and his criticism of supply management. But will this nomination realistically hurt Carney’s relationship...
OTTAWA -- The Bank of Canada's governing council says it's difficult to predict which direction interest rates may go as trade uncertainty clouds its outlook.
EDMONTON -- Elections Alberta issued three more recall petitions Tuesday for members of the provincial legislature -- two United Conservative backbenchers and one Opposition New Democrat.
WINNIPEG -- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he's not going to fulfil a 2023 election campaign promise to regulate gas prices.
MONTREAL -- Pablo Rodriguez's successor as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party will be elected at a convention on March 14.
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff campaign against Canada -- and the surge in patriotic zeal it inspired -- have been voted The Canadian Press News Story of the Year. Nearly two-thirds of editors and news directors surveyed from media organizations across the country picked the political and economic upheaval caused by Trump's trade war as the most consequential story of...
Mark Carney became Prime Minister on a promise to reduce Canadian dependence on the increasingly protectionist and unreliable United States under Donald Trump. “It’s clear the U.S. is no longer a reliable partner,” Mr. Carney said after taking office. “The old relationship” Canada had with the United States, he said, is over. Significant parts of his travel reflect this, with...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he'd launched a "powerful and deadly strike" against Islamic State forces in Nigeria, after he spent weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility.
The American Academy of Pediatrics sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, seeking to block nearly $12 million in cuts to the group.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department said Wednesday that finishing the release of all of the Jeffrey Epstein files could take a "few more weeks," further delaying compliance with a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress.
Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned new Russian air attacks and announced additional economic assistance for Ukraine as he and the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stood side-by-side and spoke to reporters at a Halifax-area airport. The two leaders embraced as Carney welcomed Zelenskyy to Canada. Zelenskyy touched down for a brief stop on his way to Florida for planned peace talks...
The people anxiously sipping hot chocolate in the Canadian Embassy in Washington on a cold night in January almost a year ago couldn't have predicted the roller-coaster of trade provocations and bilateral blow-ups the next 12 months would bring. In hindsight, that unusually chilly Washington evening foreshadowed how the Canada-U.S. relationship would soon freeze over. Trump's tariff threats and his...
Israel's security cabinet approved 19 new settlements on Sunday. Canada and 13 other countries issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. “We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but...
Europe is watching for a possible breakthrough in U.S.-led talks for a ceasefire in Ukraine, as Canada has repeatedly said it's up to Ukrainians to decide how the war ends. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told reporters he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia's invasion, if...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed a global investment banker and pension fund manager to be Canada's next ambassador in Washington. Carney's office said Mark Wiseman, who begins the role Feb. 15, will lead negotiations with the United States on a review of the continental free trade deal. Wiseman is a longtime friend of Carney who was among the first...
Lisa Van Dusen: Senator Boehm, that was quite a year. Between the trade war, Donald Trump’s renewed undermining of multilateralism, and the geopolitical implications of American degradation — I think Trump’s recent National Security Strategy may have summed it up best as a capstone to 2025. How do you see Trump II, Year One? Sen. Peter Boehm: In foreign policy...
The year 2025 was a year of volatility, experimentation, and recalibration across Asia and Canada. Much of the volatility stemmed from U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda, which upended global trade norms and injected new uncertainty into supply chains. China, meanwhile, pressed ahead with an increasingly assertive industrial strategy, even as it contended with slower domestic growth and structural...
Even modest Canadian engagement with China may be judged less on its merits than on how it is interpreted in the U.S. within a framework designed to ‘wind down adversarial outside influence.’
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
You may want to dust off your Bescherelles, Canadian politicos: the battle for the future of Québec is where things are going to happen in 2026. In case you missed it, today the new leader of the Québec Liberal Party, Pablo Rodriguez, announced his resignation. His resignation was precipitated by a terrible, scandalous month for the QLP — one that...
The federal government this week dumped its load of annual statistics about citizens’ use of the Access to Information Act.
Stephen Thorne has died. The bitter, unexpected death of a tough journalist who wrote about death but couldn’t report on his own. He’d have written a damn fine story about it. I was his boss for years, in Halifax and Ottawa, though Stephen had no time for bosses. He followed his nose for stories whether or not anybody asked for...
This week on The House: Three Parliament Hill watchers square off against each other to see who can remember the most from a very eventful and consequential year in Canadian politics.
After the beating our predictions took in 2025, we’ve lifted ourselves up, dusted ourselves off and are once again ready to try to predict the political year to come. Yes, it’s time for our annual Over/Under Contest, the fifth year in a row that Philippe and I go head-to-head to see who has the better crystal ball for 2026. What...
The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols joins Steve to discuss Trump’s “ghoulish” comments about Rob and Michele Reiner’s murders, if this is a new low for him, how he sees the Trump administration as a “confederacy of toddlers,” if Trump is losing his grip on the Republican Party, the growing rift within the GOP, the resentments Americans feel, and what happens after...
Noor Azrieh and Sam Konnert look back on the moments that defined Canadian politics this year. We revisit viral clips, media meltdowns, Question Period fever dreams, floor crossers, immigration fights, Alberta separatism, national projects (that may or may not exist yet), and the growing sense that everything is moving very fast… but also somehow not at all.
